STUDY LINKS CRIME VICTIMS TO THEIR WORK

Bartenders and waitresses are most likely to be victims of robbery or larceny while radio operators, stenographers and opticians are are least likely to be robbed, a report says.

The report, "Crime Victimization Rates for 246 Occupations," details the risk of crime frequency in five categories -- robbery, assault, burglary, larceny and auto theft. It was published in the Journal of Sociology and Social Research.

Sheriffs, baliffs and police officers, the report said, run the greatest risk of assault, followed closely by dishwashers, gardeners and gas station attendants. Grinding machine operators, farmers and dentists were least likely to be assaulted.

Further, meatcutters are 10 times more likely to be robbed than bank tellers, and bus drivers stand four times the risk of being assaulted that schoolteachers do.

Reseachers used data from national crime surveys conducted by the Bureau of Justice Statistics from 1973 to 1981 and interviews from 108,000 crime victims who also were employed.

Accountants, bank tellers, opticians, clergy members and engineers generally tend to have the safest jobs, the study found, while recreation and amusement park workers, restaurant personnel, and musicians carry the highest risks in the five crime categories.

Marcus Felson, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Southern California and one of three writers of the report, said it is the first time crime risks have been correlated with jobs.

"What we found is that the routines in your life, when you go to work, when you're home and when you're not, is what the criminal learns and memorizes," Felson said.

Bartenders and people who work in restaurants and nightclubs top the list of the worst as far as having one's personal property taken, while airline pilots are only a seventh as likely as a professional athlete to lose a car to thieves.

In auto thefts, sales demonstrators and peddlers topped the list, followed by house painters, computer systems analysts and bartenders. On the flip side of the scale were farm laborers, millwrights and airline pilots.

The study also proved clearly, Felson said, that adolescents are responsible for most crime, that younger people are the biggest victims of criminal activity since they tend to stay out longer in the evening, and that women in the work force have a higher chance of being crime victims than women who stay home.